The pastor of an evangelical church in France - blamed by the French government for spreading coronavirus across the country - has given one of his first broadcast interviews to the BBC.

Pastor Samuel Peterschmitt has described death threats faced by his congregation and hit back at accusations that the church was responsible for the outbreak in France. Watch what he has to say here:

The BBC is hosting a three-hour fundraising show tonight, aiming to raise millions of pounds for vulnerable people around the UK who have been affected by the pandemic.

The show begins at 19:00 BST on BBC One and will see Children in Need and Comic Relief join forces for the first time.

British favourites like Little Britain, Peter Kay, The Vicar of Dibley and Catherine Tate will all return.

Ten Doctor Who actors from the past 50 years will also say thank you.

• Read more: Doctor Who stars unite for BBC charity show

Leading doctors in Pakistan have urged officials and clerics to reverse their decision to allow prayers at mosques during Ramadan, external, as it could instigate a spread that would be hard to control.

“Unfortunately, our rulers have made a wrong decision; our clerics have shown a non-serious attitude,” Dr Qaiser Sajjad of the Pakistan Medical Association said.

On Wednesday, Prime Minister Imran Khan tested negative for coronavirus, which has infected more than 10,000 and killed 212 people in the country.

Here's news from the rest of South Asia:

• Amnesty has called on Bangladesh to again rescue 500 Rohingya refugees stranded in the Bay of Bengal. Earlier this month, the country took in hundreds of starving refugees drifting at sea
• Nepal's prime minister thanked India for supplying it with 23 tonnes of essential medicine as cases rise to 45
• Following a sudden spike of 41 cases earlier this week, Sri Lanka has dropped its plan to ease lockdown rules, and has extended it to 27 April

Some social restrictions are expected to remain in the UK for at least the rest of the year, the government's chief medical adviser has said.

Prof Chris Whitty said it was "wholly unrealistic" to expect life would suddenly return to normal soon.

He said the ideal way out would be via a "highly effective vaccine" or treatment drugs but said the chances of having these within the next year was "incredibly small".

"This disease is not going to be eradicated, it is not going to disappear," he said, at the government's daily coronavirus briefing.

"So we have to accept that we are working with a disease that we are going to be with globally... for the foreseeable future."

Read more on this here.

Image source, Getty Images

About 80 groups around the world are researching coronavirus vaccines and some are now entering clinical trials.

A vaccine would normally take years or decades to develop.

But most experts think a vaccine is likely to become available by mid-2021, about 12-18 months after the new virus, known officially as Sars-CoV-2, first emerged.

However there are no guarantees it will work.

Read more about the hunt for a vaccine here.

Image source, Reuters

Everyone wants to know how well their country is tackling coronavirus, compared with others.

But it is not always that simple. For example, the US has the most coronavirus deaths in the world. But it only has about half the total of the UK, Germany, France, Italy and Spain combined - despite having a similar population.

Some countries are also testing a bigger range of people than others.

What else don't the individual statistics tell us? Read more here.

Image source, Getty Images

There have now been more than 2.6 million coronavirus cases around the world, with more than 180,000 deaths.

Readers have been getting in touch with us to ask questions, which we have tried to answer.

• Read more: Can my boss make me return to work?

The lack of personal protective equipment (PPE) has become one of the defining stories of the UK's battle with coronavirus.

The British Medical Association has said doctors on the frontline are "frightened" and being left with difficult choices about whether to risk their lives by treating patients because of a lack of kit.

The Association of Directors of Adult Social Services has described the approach to care homes as "shambolic" as staff have struggled to get hold of the aprons, gloves and goggles needed.

What has gone wrong? Read more here.

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

If you're just waking up in the UK, good morning. Here are the latest UK headlines:

• Some 20,000 households in England will be contacted to take part in a study to try and track and trace coronavirus
• The earliest "realistic" date the headteachers can see schools re-opening is 1 June, after Education Secretary Gavin Williamson said no date had been set
• Our health correspondent, Nick Triggle, has tried to explain what has gone wrong with the UK's supply of personal protective equipment (PPE).

And for something lighter: winning a big jackpot is a dream for a lot of people but lottery winner Ryan Hoyle has had to celebrate his big win... with social distancing in place.

Resty Woro Yuniar
BBC News, Jakarta

Image source, AFP

Muslims in Indonesia’s northernmost province, Aceh, held a mass tarawih - the nightly prayer for the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan - at some mosques last night, defying the government’s advice to forgo mass prayers this year.

Indonesia's country’s religious minister earlier this month issued a guidance on praying during Ramadan - which begins this evening - in which he urged Muslims to pray at home and minimise activities at the mosques.

However in Aceh - the only province in Indonesia that implements sharia law - the grand mosque will still allow mass tarawih prayers as long as people wear masks and bring their own prayer mats.

“Muslims can still do tarawih prayers at the mosques as usual, but we hope that they pay attention to their health by wearing masks,” says Tengku Faisal Asli, vice chairman at Aceh Ulama Consultative Assembly, according to news agency Antara.

Indonesia registered 7,418 positive coronavirus cases as of Wednesday and 635 deaths have been linked to the virus.

Robin Brant
BBC News, Shanghai

Despite all the criticism it's facing, China is focused on continued containment - as well as putting out the message that their approach has been a success.

The Lancet medical journal praised it as "impressive" and "encouraging", external for other countries, while repeating claims that China’s true number of Covid-19 cases early on was much higher than reported, because of its early strict criteria for diagnosis.

But the virus is re-emerging in parts of the north, where the city of Harbin is under restrictions. One hospital there has closed after an 87-year-old man who had visited was diagnosed with the virus - he’d unknowingly infected 78 other people.

With the impact on China’s economy laid bare by last week’s GDP figures the push to get back to business continues.

But nothing will be be normal. Schools in Shanghai are set to start re-opening next week but some teachers have already been told that they will be required to abide by certain safety measures, such as compulsory masks indoors.

It can get boring for some during a lockdown, so what better time to get stuck in with a new book?

The BBC's arts editor Will Gompertz spoke to best-selling authors Margaret Atwood, Adam Kay, Maggie O'Farrell, Bernardine Evaristo and Matt Haig - here they share some recommendations on what to read.

Madeleine Hordinski is a 22-year-old student in Ohio who has been photographing life at home with her family in lockdown. She documents how her life has changed, with new rules on keeping the family safe, as part of our Life Under Lockdown series:

Image source, AFP / Getty

More now on the growing pressure on China to rein in its markets, with the Australian government calling for G20 countries to take action on wildlife wet markets.

Australia is not yet calling for a ban - but says its own advisers believe they may need to be "phased out".

"Wet markets" are simply marketplaces that sell fresh food such as meat, fish, fruit and vegetables. A small number also sell wildlife - and it's thought the coronavirus may have emerged at a wet market in Wuhan that sold live "exotic" animals.

"A wet market, like the Sydney fish market, is perfectly safe," said Agriculture Minister David Littleproud.

"But when you add wildlife, live wildlife, exotic wildlife - that opens up human risk and biosecurity risk to the extent we have seen.

"And in fact, China themselves reported this to the World Organization for Animal Health, that that was the cause of Covid-19."

Read more here.

Robin Brant
BBC News, Shanghai

Australia’s relationship with China post-virus is evolving, to put it politely.

It will be further strained by calls from the Prime Minister Scott Morrison for all members of the WHO to co-operate with an independent inquiry into the spread of the virus.

Add to that a push by his agriculture minister for members of the G20 group of advanced economies - which includes China - to ban wildlife markets (one of which in Wuhan is where the virus is thought to have emerged).

This looks like a concerted push back against Beijing. The criticism has been coming thick and fast this week from London, Paris and Washington. The UK’s Foreign Secretary said there could be no "business as usual" with China now.

After Donald Trump turned his fire on the WHO, stopping US funding of the world’s health policeman claiming it was soft on China, the pressure is undeniably mounting.

Another 14 crew members on a cruise ship docked in Japan have tested positive for Covid-19, taking the total to almost 50.

The Costa Atlantica arrived in Nagasaki in January for repairs, with more than 632 crew - but no passengers - on board. The crew come from 33 countries.

The Atlantica is the latest cruise ship to suffer a virus outbreak:

• The Diamond Princess was quarantined outside Yokohama in Japan in February, after an outbreak. More than 700 people on board caught the virus and 13 died.
• The Ruby Princess disembarked 2,700 passengers in downtown Sydney in March. More than 600 cases and 21 deaths, external are linked to the cruise, and police are investigating.
• The Grand Princess, which was kept at sea before docking in California in March, had more than 100 cases, with at least two deaths.
• On the Greg Mortimer, which was due to cruise the Antarctic, more than half of the 217 passengers and crew tested positive, but no deaths have been reported.

There are no cruise ships still carrying passengers. Here's our report on "the last cruise ship on Earth", which finally arrived home on Monday.

A New Zealand man who tried to sue Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern arguing he had been unlawfully detained by the lockdown has had his court case dismissed.

Everyone in New Zealand currently has to remain at home with the exception of essential movement, though some restrictions will be eased next week.

The man, who cannot be identified, asked for a writ of habeas corpus, which declares that someone's detention is unlawful.

Justice Mary Peters dismissed this, saying she did not consider the man and his family to be detained.

"In my view, the freedom to exercise whenever they wish, to go to the supermarket whenever they wish, to talk to whomever they wish, and to access the internet whenever they wish is quite different from being held in custody," she said, according to local media.

There are currently 1,112 confirmed cases in New Zealand and 16 deaths.

Yvette Tan
Singapore

A Singapore man who broke quarantine orders to go out for dinner has received a six week jail sentence - making him the first in the country to be sentenced for a coronavirus-related offence.

Alan Tham ignored a 14 day Stay At Home order after he returned from Malaysia to go to a hawker centre for dinner as he had a craving for bak kut teh - a pork rib soup dish.

Much of Singapore eats its meals in hawker centres, or food courts, where dishes can be as cheap as S$2 ($1.40; £1.20).

But Singapore, which has more than 10,000 virus cases, is in a partial lockdown - which it refers to as a "circuit breaker". Only deliveries and takeaways are allowed for food, and many restaurants are serving their food on delivery apps.

But many of the small, specialist hawkers stalls are run by elderly Singaporeans who have no idea how to navigate these apps, or can't afford the fees.

One Facebook group however, is trying to remedy this. People have been actively posting in the Hawkers United 2020 group, bringing attention to hawkers who need help and posting phone numbers, so people can arrange for takeaway services.

It's hoped these measures will help hawkers stay afloat during these tough times.

Image source, Getty Images

Guillermo Usme spent a week at Mount Sinai Queens hospital in New York City suffering from Covid-19.

His doctors say he responded well to treatment and was able to recover without the use of a ventilator. When he left the hospital, medical staff cheered for him. Here's his story:

Jonathan Head
BBC South East Asia Correspondent

Image source, Reuters

With no new cases in seven days the Vietnamese authorities have announced they will start easing the lockdown in most of the country from today. There have been only 268 confirmed infections and no deaths.

How did they do it?

Vietnam acted with speed when the first Covid-19 cases were reported in late January, stopping flights, closing the border with China, and launching a nationwide information campaign, with slick video messages and posters reminiscent of the heroic style used in the Vietnam War. It is a one-party, communist state with an efficient local administration and intrusive security apparatus, able to enforce quarantine even on entire districts to stop them spreading.

It has been unable to replicate the mass testing carried out by Germany and South Korea; its health system is poorly resourced, and would have been quickly overwhelmed by a more serious outbreak.

But Vietnam has shown that political will, a well-organised state and a compliant public have been sufficient to spare the country from the worst effects of the coronavirus.